This application is based on Japanese Patent Application HEI 11-263484, filed on Sep. 17, 1999, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a musical performance data editing system, and more particularly to a performance data editing system capable of changing performance data to desired values.
b) Description of the Related Art
FIG. 13 is a diagram showing the format of real performance data.
The real performance data corresponds to automatic performance data of one musical program and includes tracks 1 to n each including initial setting information. If real performance data is stored in the format of a standard MIDI file, the initial setting information and real performance data are expressed in the format of MIDI data. MIDI data includes data regarding a start and end of each musical tone such as a note on/off and setting data for setting performance expression for consecutive musical tones such as tone color and effects.
The initial setting information is often placed at the top of real performance data. The initial setting information is preset in order to play music, such as tone color, volume and effects at the start of automatic performance.
Each track is roughly grouped into the initial setting information and the real performance data following the initial setting information. The real performance data includes parameters other than the initial setting information, for example, data after a first note-on event in the music.
The real performance data contains the note on/off as well as parameters (volume change and the like) effective only in a specific section.
For automatic performance, the initial setting data is first read to initially set tone color and the like. Then, the real performance data is read to perform the automatic performance including sound production and sound muting. The real performance data is terminated at end data.
A user sometimes desires to change real performance data according to the user preference. In such a case, the user changes a parameter (e.g., volume) at a designated position of real performance data by using a sequencer or a personal computer.
As a method of displaying MIDI data to edit it, three methods are well known including xe2x80x9cmusical score displayxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cnumerical value displayxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cpiano roll displayxe2x80x9d.
With the musical score display, musical scores of MIDI data are displayed. In editing the MIDI data, notes and symbols are placed or moved on, or deleted from, a staff notation on a display screen by using, for example, a mouse.
Musical score data is used for displaying real performance data. As the musical score data, data for displaying tune, rhythm and the like on a staff notation on a display screen, data for identifying corresponding real performance data, and the like are stored. After these data, position data is stored in correspondence with each timing data of the real performance data, and data for displaying a tone and symbol corresponding to an event at each timing.
In this specification, performance data is intended to mean automatic performance data including both real performance data and musical score data. If there is no musical score data corresponding to the real performance data, the performance data is intended to mean only the real performance data.
With the numerical value display, values of MIDI data are all represented by numerical values in a table format. In editing the MIDI data, a numerical value at an edition position is changed or deleted or a numerical value is entered at an edition position.
With the piano roll display, a length of each tone and its sound producing timing are represented by using a bar graph.
If a user changes a volume parameter (EXP) by designating one position in performance data, the volume of the note only at the designated position is changed and the values of parameters after the designated position are not changed.
EXP indicates MIDI expression data. The volume is determined in a range from 0 to 127. As this parameter is inserted, the following performance is made at the volume corresponding to the parameter value expressed by a numerical value in parentheses (refer to performance data shown in FIG. 13).
This method is effective for giving an accent to the note at the designated position. However, if this effect is different from a user intention, such as gradually changing the volume of notes, a discontinuity occurs between the edited data and following data, destroying rising and falling of notes or intonation.
In other cases, the values of all parameters after the edition position are changed to have the same value as the changed parameter. In such cases, although a discontinuity will not occur, rising and falling of notes is completely deleted.
In order to eliminate such disadvantages as unnatural performance after the edition position and edit real performance data, with the parameter intonation before edition being retained, it is necessary to manually change or insert each parameter after the edition position sequentially one after another.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a performance data editing system capable of automatically editing performance data in a manner desired by a user.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a performance data editing system capable of editing performance data in a manner desired by a user with simple operation.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a musical performance data editing system, comprising: edition designating means for designating an edition position and edition contents, edition range determining means for determining an edition range in accordance with edition designation; and editing means for editing information regarding the edition contents in the determined edition range in accordance with the edition contents.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a musical performance data editing system, comprising: edition designating means for designating an edition position and edition contents for data to be edited; first detecting means for detecting a parameter coincident with a predetermined condition from data at positions after the edition position; edition range determining means for determining an edition range in accordance with a detection result by the first detecting means; first editing means for changing a parameter at the edition position in accordance with the edition contents; second detecting means for detecting a parameter relevant to the edition contents in the edition range; and second editing means for editing the parameter detected by the second detecting means in the edition range.
According to this invention, performance data can be edited automatically in accordance with user intention. Performance data can also be edited in accordance with user intention with simple operations.